Michael Bloomberg speaks about his gun policy agenda in Aurora, Colo., December 5, 2019. (Rick Wilking/Reuters) Throughout his career, he has repeatedly shown blatant disrespect for individual rights and civil liberties. While discussing the Texas church shooting last week, Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg said that we “just do not want the average citizen carrying

Cory Booker withdrew from the race for the Democratic nomination today. The candidate acknowledged that there was “no longer a path to victory” for his campaign, an assertion borne out by his abysmal poll numbers and inconsistent fundraising efforts. Booker is just the latest candidate “of color” to be rejected by the base of voters

Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders hosts a climate rally in Iowa City, Iowa, U.S. January 12, 2020. (Scott Morgan/Reuters) The next few months will go a long way toward providing us an answer. If turnout is comparable to 2016, three weeks from today about 170,000 people will participate in the Iowa Democratic caucus,

Bernie Sanders speaks at a rally in Iowa City, Iowa, January 12, 2020. (Scott Morgan/Reuters) If he won Iowa, the party might unite behind an Anybody But Bernie candidate. In 2016, insurgent candidates roiled the nomination process of both major parties. Donald Trump, running as a populist, won 44 percent of the primary vote against

2003 PBS interview with Joe Biden. (Screengrab via Twitter/PBS ) Joe Biden has claimed repeatedly on the campaign trail that he reversed his support for the invasion of Iraq as soon as it began, but resurfaced clips from a 2003 interview suggest he continued to defend his pro-war vote for years after the conflict was

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill, October 17, 2019. (Erin Scott/Reuters) This was the week when even Democrats began to publicly question Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to not transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate.  “The longer it goes on the less urgent it becomes,” Democratic senator Dianne

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy lays flowers to commemorate victims of the Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane crash, at a memorial in Boryspil International airport outside Kiev, Ukraine January 9, 2020. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters) On the menu today: how the claim that the United States is ultimately responsible for the Iranian military

Michigan senator Gary Peters poses with wife Colleen at Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, Mich., December 1, 2018. (Raj Mehta/USA Today Sports) A new poll out of Michigan shows first-term Democratic senator Gary Peters facing a real challenge in 2020. Peters leads his Republican challenger John James just 44 percent to 40 percent, according to the

Former vice president Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primary debate at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, Calif., December 19, 2019. (Mike Blake/Reuters) We’re just a few weeks out from the Iowa caucuses, and a week after that, the New Hampshire primary. There’s still time for things to change, but right

Attendees walk past a Facebook logo at the company’s developers conference in San Jose, Calif., April 30, 2019. (Stephen Lam/Reuters) Facebook announced on Thursday that it would not change its ad policy ahead of the 2020 elections and will continue to allow political ads with false or misleading information. “In the absence of regulation, Facebook

Former vice president Joe Biden speaks during a meeting in New Hampton, Iowa, December 5, 2019. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters) Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Tuesday dismissed Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s complaint about sharing a party with him, citing the broad support he receives from voters across racial and socio-economic demographics. “Differences in the party have always

President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a campaign rally in Bossier City, La., November 14, 2019. (Tom Brenner/Reuters) Gallup has a new study out that shows party ID has remained stable during the Trump era. Forty-seven percent of adults identify as Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents, and 42 percent identify as Republican or Republican-leaning independents. “As

Former vice president Joe Biden speaks at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, December 4, 2019. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters) And I’m glad it’s being sued. Iowa State University’s speech policies place strict limits on the ways in which students can express support for political candidates — and now, thankfully, the school is being sued over it.

Michael Bloomberg speaks about his gun policy agenda in Aurora, Colo., December 5, 2019. (Rick Wilking/Reuters) Mike Bloomberg, speaking January 3 about the shooting in the West Freeway Church: “Somebody in the congregation had their own gun and killed the person who murdered two other people, but it is the job of law enforcement to

President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a campaign rally in Bossier City, La., November 14, 2019. (Tom Brenner/Reuters) Hours after former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg announced his presidential campaign was spending $10 million for 60 seconds of ad time during the Super Bowl, the Trump reelection campaign announced that it would be running

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks on the second night of the second Democratic presidential debate in Detroit, Mich., July 31, 2019. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters) But he is showering love — surprise! — on the hotel unions who donated heavily to his doomed presidential run. Bill de Blasio’s short-lived presidential campaign didn’t attract a

Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks at a rally with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Council Bluffs, Iowa, November 8, 2019. (Scott Morgan/Reuters) They’re not acting as if they do. For a party whose most fervent activists are marinated in identity politics, Democrats could have been expected to gravitate toward a woman or a minority as their presidential

Former vice president Joe Biden during the Democratic primary debate at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, Calif., December 19, 2019. (Mike Blake/Reuters) You might not have heard of her before, but Congresswoman Abby Finkenauer became the highest-ranking Iowa Democrat to formally endorse a 2020 presidential candidate when she threw her support to Joe Biden

Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate Julian Castro gestures during a televised townhall on CNN dedicated to LGBTQ issues in Los Angeles, California, U.S. October 10, 2019. (Mike Blake/Reuters) Julian Castro departs the 2020 Democratic presidential race as yet another candidate whose media-hype-to-voter-appeal ratio was all out of whack. Roughly a year ago, I wrote, “the

Entrepreneur Andrew Yang walks through a crowd of media after the sixth 2020 Democratic presidential candidates campaign debate at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, Calif., December 19, 2019. (Kyle Grillot/Reuters) It will be a tall task for the surprisingly successful outsider candidate, but not an impossible one. When it comes to beating expectations, Andrew

Every year, around the world, people bring in the New Year with a rendition of “Auld Lang Syne.” This Scottish song has long been attributed to Scotland’s most famous poet, Robert Burns (1759–1796). And yet,  “Burns wasn’t the sole author,” according to Robert Crawford, Burns’s esteemed biographer … Read More

Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former vice president Joe Biden during the Democratic primary debate at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, Calif., December 19, 2019. (Mike Blake/Reuters) Senator Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign posted lackluster fundraising numbers during the final quarter of the year, placing her squarely behind the other top contenders for the Democratic nomination.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren during the Democratic primary debate at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, Calif., December 19, 2019. (Mike Blake/Reuters) Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) said she would vote to pass the USMCA trade deal in the Senate during an interview Friday, despite saying in 2018 that she would not support “NAFTA 2.0.” Warren

Democratic U.S. presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden campaigns at a community event in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., September 27, 2019. (REUTERS/David Becker ) Former Vice President Joe Biden expressed concern Thursday night that President Trump’s decision to kill Iranian general Qassim Soleimani was made recklessly and without regard to the possible forms

From left: Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Kamala Harris, entrepreneur Andrew Yang, Beto O’Rourke, and former Housing Secretary Julian Castro pose before the start of the Democratic presidential debate in Houston, Texas, September 12, 2019. (Jonathan Bachman/Reuters) This morning, Julian Castro announced that he would suspend his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination,

From left: Entrepreneur Andrew Yang, South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, former vice president Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, and activist Tom Steyer on stage during the Democratic primary debate at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, Calif., December 19, 2019. (Mike Blake/Reuters) Julian Castro is departing the presidential race,

Candidates in a Democratic presidential debate, November 20, 2019, Atlanta, Ga. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters) Welcome to 2020! We kick off this new year with a pleasant bit of news about the Morning Jolt. Everyone who wants to get this newsletter entirely in email form, and to not have to click through to the NR website after

Senator Elizabeth Warren speaks at Keene State College in Keene, N.H., September 25, 2019. (Brian Snyder / Reuters) On the Electoral College, guns, Jack Nicklaus, Barry Switzer, Mariah Carey, and more Elizabeth Warren could not have been plainer, in this tweet: “My goal is to get elected — but I plan to be the last

Sen. Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primary debate at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, Calif., December 19, 2019. (Mike Blake/Reuters) The latest fundraising email from the Bernie Sanders campaign, signed by campaign manager Faiz Shakir, has a subject line that simply says: “Obscene.” (No, it’s not a reference to Sanders’ old essays for an

A reader asked, “When are you going to write about ‘Little White Women’?” At first I thought the question was cynical, but the more I thought about it, I became amused by its prescience. The crazy, boring, laughable thing about Greta Gerwig’s version of Little Women is that casual racism is merely the … Read